Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama said he emerged from Super Tuesday as the leader in the delegate count over Hillary Clinton in a Democratic presidential race that both campaigns expect will be a protracted battle.

Clinton's advisers said the two candidates would end up after yesterday's voting separated by no more than five or six delegates, who will determine the party's nominee for the general election in November.

``Two weeks ago, nobody thought we would come out of Feb. 5th standing,'' Obama, an Illinois senator, said today in Chicago. ``But we won more delegates and we won more states.''

Super Tuesday left Arizona Senator John McCain in clear command of the Republican presidential contest with victories in nine of 21 states holding contests, including six that awarded delegates on a winner-take-all basis.

Democratic delegates, which are awarded based on a combination of popular votes statewide and results in congressional districts, were still being tallied in states such as New Mexico and Missouri because of close margins between the two Democratic candidates.

David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said during a conference call this morning that the candidate accumulated 847 delegates to Clinton's 834 by winning more states than Clinton did and piling up large margins of victory in those states. That would bring the total delegate count to 910 for Obama and 882 for Clinton, he said.

Obama's Strategy

Obama pursued a strategy of cultivating Democrats who voted in caucuses and those who lived in smaller states that are dominated by Republicans, such as Kansas, Idaho and Alaska.

Clinton won eight states, including most of the biggest in play yesterday -- California, New York and New Jersey -- with an average margin of victory of 18 percentage points.

While the 13 states Obama took include some of the smallest in terms of available delegates, his average margin of victory was 26 percentage points.

A candidate needs 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination.

``Super Tuesday proved to be a very poor tool for getting definitive nominees,'' said Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. ``It is possible that this will not be settled until the Democratic convention.''

`A Draw'

Advisers to New York Senator Clinton, 60, declined to release their estimates. Guy Cecil, Clinton's political field director, said on a conference call that the campaign's current count shows Clinton ahead by one delegate, with more delegates to be counted. He said he expects the final margin will be narrow.

The results are ``essentially bringing yesterday to a draw on delegates,'' he said.

A total of 1,681 Democratic delegates were at stake in the voting across 22 states. An Associated Press count, which was not yet complete, showed Clinton, 60, won at least 584 delegates yesterday compared with 569 for Obama. That would give Clinton 845 in the total delegate count versus 765 for Obama.

McCain won at least 511 delegates yesterday compared with 176 for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and 147 for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, according to AP. That brings McCain's total delegate count to 613 while Romney garnered 269 and Huckabee 190. A candidate needs 1,191 delegates to win the Republican nomination.

McCain

McCain said today he was canceling a planned trip to a defense conference this weekend in Europe to campaign for the next round of contests: Louisiana and Kansas on Feb. 9 and Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. on Feb. 12.

``I think we have to wrap this up as quickly as possible,'' McCain, 71, said in Phoenix.

The candidate has declared himself the front-runner and his advisers say there is little chance his lead can be overcome.

``The math is nearly impossible for Mitt Romney to win the nomination,'' McCain adviser Charlie Black wrote in a campaign memo distributed to reporters.

In addition to pledged delegates awarded in primaries and caucuses, Clinton and Obama, 46, are vying for almost 800 so- called super delegates, Democratic officeholders and party officials who are free to back any candidate.

Obama and Clinton campaign advisers said the super delegates could be crucial to deciding the party's nominee at the Democratic National Convention, which opens Aug. 25.

Clinton campaign advisers said her victories in delegate- rich states such as California and New York would show super delegates that she's the party's most viable national candidate.

``A lot of super delegates will be looking at the map and will be looking at, well, who do they really think is the candidate who can take on the Republicans,'' said Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist.

Obama said that super delegates would consider who had more delegates at the convention.

``Those super delegates will have to think long and hard about who they'll support because the people they represent have said, `Obama's our guy,''' he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington jbliss@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 6, 2008 17:15 EST